INDIAN
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ACT, 1933
[Act No. 17
of Year 1933, dated 11th. September, 1933]
An Act
to regulate the possession of wireless telegraphy apparatus
Whereas it is
expedient to regulate the possession of wireless telegraphy
apparatus in India;
It is hereby
enacted as follows: -
1. Short title, extent and
commencement
(1) This Act
may be called the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933.
(2) It
extends to the whole of India.
(3) It shall
come into force of such date as the Central Government may, by
notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
2. Definitions
In this Act,
unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context-
(1) "wireless
communication" means any transmission, emission or reception of
signs, signals, writing, images and sounds, or intelligence of any
nature by means of electricity, magnetism, or radio waves or
Hertzian waves, without the use of wires or other continuous
electrical conductors between the transmitting and the receiving
apparatus.
Explanation: "Radio waves"
or "Hertzian waves" means electromagnetic waves of frequencies lower
than 3,000 gigacycles per second propagated in space without
artificial guide;
(2) "wireless
telegraphy apparatus" means any apparatus, appliance, instrument or
material used or capable of use in wireless communication, and
includes any article determined by rule made under section 10 to be
wireless telegraphy apparatus, but does not include any such
apparatus, appliance, instrument or material commonly used for other
electrical purposes, unless it has been specially designed or
adapted for wireless communication or forms part of some apparatus,
appliance, instrument or material specially so designed or adapted,
nor any article determined by rule made under section 10 not to be
wireless telegraphy apparatus;
(2A)
"wireless transmitter" means any apparatus, appliance, instrument or
material used or capable of use for transmission or emission of
wireless communication;
(3)
"prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under section 10.
3. Prohibition of possession of
wireless telegraphy apparatus without licence
Save as
provided by section 4, no person shall possess wireless telegraphy
apparatus except under and in accordance with a licence issued under
this Act.
4. Power of Central Government to
exempt persons from provisions of the Act
The Central
Government may by rules made under this Act exempt any person or any
class of persons from the provisions of this Act either generally or
subject to prescribed conditions, or in respect of specified
wireless telegraphy apparatus.
5. Licences
The telegraph
authority constituted under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of
1885), shall be the authority competent to issue licences to possess
wireless telegraphy apparatus under this Act, and may issue licences
in such manner, on such conditions and subject to such payments as
may be prescribed.
6. Offence and
penalty
(1) Whoever
possesses any wireless telegraphy apparatus, other than a wireless
transmitter, in contravention of the provisions of section 3 shall
be punished, in the case of the first offence, with fine which may
extend to one hundred rupees, and, in the case of a second or
subsequent offence, with fine which may extend to two hundred and
fifty rupees.
(1A) Whoever
possesses any wireless transmitter in contravention of the
provisions of section 3 shall be punished with imprisonment which
may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to one
thousand rupees, or with both.
(2) For the
purposes of this section a court may presume that a person possesses
wireless telegraphy apparatus if such apparatus is under his
ostensible charge, or is located in any premises or place over which
he has effective control.
(3) If in the
trial of an offence under this section the accused is convicted, the
court shall decide whether any apparatus in respect of which an
offence has been committed should be confiscated, and, if it so
decides, may order confiscation accordingly.
Comment: All members of the household
cannot be charged like this without more. A-13, being the wife of
A-12, was living with her husband A-12 and merely on that account
knowledge and intention cannot be attributed to her, particularly
when no overt act is alleged against her. She is acquitted of all
these charges and her conviction and sentence set aside.State of
T.N. v. Nalini AIR 1999 SUPREME COURT 2640
7. Power of search
Any officer
specially empowered by the Central Government in this behalf may
search any building, vessel or place in which he has reason to
believe that any wireless telegraphy apparatus, in respect of which
an offence punishable under section 6 has been committed, is kept or
concealed, and take possession thereof.
8. Apparatus confiscated or
having no owner to be property of Central Government
All wireless
telegraphy apparatus confiscated under the provisions of sub-section
(3) of section 6, and all wireless telegraphy apparatus having no
ostensible owner shall be the property of the Central
Government.
9. Power of court to direct
payment of fines to prescribed authority
[Ceased
to have effect by the A.O. 1937 and rep. by the Repealing and
Amending Act,1940]
10. Power of Central Government
to make rules
(1) The
Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette,
make rules for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of
this Act.
(2) In
particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing
power, such rules may provide for-
(i)
determining that any article or class of article shall be or shall
not be wireless telegraphy apparatus for the purposes of this
Act;
(ii) the
exemption of persons or classes of persons under section 4 from the
provisions of this Act;
(iii) the
manner of and the conditions governing the issue, renewal,
suspension and cancellation of licences, the form of licences and
the payments to be made for the issue and renewal of licences;
(iv) the
maintenance of records containing details of the acquisition and
disposal by sale or otherwise of wireless telegraphy apparatus
possessed by dealers in wireless telegraphy apparatus;
(v) the
conditions governing the sale of wireless telegraphy apparatus by
dealers in and manufacturers of such apparatus.
(3) In making
a rule under this section the Central Government may direct that a
breach of it shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one
hundred rupees.
(4) Every
rule made under this section shall be laid as soon as may be after
it is made before each House of Parliament while it is in session
for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one
session or 1[in two or more successive sessions, and if,
before the expiry of the session immediately following the session
or the successive sessions aforesaid], both Houses agree in making
any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule
should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in
such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so,
however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without
prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that
rule.
11. Saving of Indian Telegraph
Act, 1885
Nothing in
this Act contained shall authorise the doing of anything prohibited
under this Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885), and no licence
issued under this Act shall authorise any person to do anything for
the doing of which a licence or permission under the Indian
Telegraph Act, 1885, is necessary.
Foot Note
1 Substituted
by Act No. 4 of 1986, w.e.f. 15th. May, 1986.